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Run Log 11

Tuesday 1-18-2011 at 3:27 PM 40 minutes est 4+ miles

I’m writing this one a few hours late. I had to hurry back from the run and get cleaned up to go eat dinner with my mom. We try to go eat somewhere on Tuesday nights. I didn’t have enough time to write the blog then.

We had tacos by the way.

The run today went well. The last 15 minutes were a killer but it’s about 4 hours later right now and all I know from here is that I made my goal. The temperature was 55˚ again and it was sunny out. If it was just a little warmer it would’ve been perfect running weather. But I can’t complain. I did feel very tired during the run but I just kept going. I keep feeling like I should make it clear that I’m going extremely slow when I run. I really should probably call it jogging. I don’t know if I could run for 40 minutes straight if I was going faster. That thought actually frightens me. I do feel like I’m falling into a regular pace though. I was telling my mom how after a certain distance running just feels normal. When you’re sitting still and thinking about running it’s easy to get freaked out by it. But once you’re out there and moving it’s not so exaggerated in your imagination I guess. It’s just what it is. That’s how it is for me at least.

It really is tricky to try to write about each run as if each one is special and different from all the others. I do think they are but not in any big or noticeable way. It feels very mechanical and almost mindless. Maybe that’s what I like about it. I spend a lot of my nonrunning time trying to write and I’m so used to trying to make things sound new and interesting then. But running isn’t the same. And it’s an action. I mean, to write I have to talk but to run I have to just shut up and move my legs. I guess it’s nice to not have to think so much when I’m running. I think that’s what I’m trying to say. Runs don’t have to be entertaining or insightful. And I like that. It’s almost like a vacation.

I have some ideas of how long I’d like to do this log. I think I’m going to wait to reveal my plans though. They might change. And I hopefully won’t be ending this any time soon anyway. I am pretty sure that I don’t want to do this forever. It feels silly writing about running. It makes me feel like I’m bragging about it all the time. And that’s not my goal here. I really just want to give an idea of what it’s like to run regularly, and hopefully for a good stretch of time. I think a lot of people get excited about wanting to run but it normally doesn’t last more than a couple of weeks. I’d like to do this over a longer period of time. And I want to try to be realistic about it. Because it isn’t easy. And I know that I don’t always want to get out there. But it does take a certain kind of determination. You just have to set your mind to it and then do it.

I feel like this log is more for people who don’t run but would like to. I don’t think anything I’m saying here is particularly interesting to real runners. Maybe it is but it seems like it would be boring to them to me.

I’ve been thinking about why it feels so strange to talk about my running so much. I think a lot of the runners I know are really secretive about their running. It’s like private time. It’s almost a holy time. When I write about it I kind of feel like I’m desecrating something. But then, that seems goofy. I mean, it’s just running, right? Who cares? I just want to capture the day to day thoughts that come with this stuff.